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I’m scanning the blog posts that talk about the incongruity of followers of Jesus celebrating July 4th  in a church, on a Sunday connected to July 4, or they are talking about flags and churches. I’m seeing a clear trend: it’s wrong, they say, to celebrate America’s independence in a church context. But there’s so little reflection on the dirty reality of what it means to fight for justice in this world. There’s such a distancing of God from the... Read more

July 4th celebrates America’s freedom, though the USA and England are no longer at war. King George — all I can think of are the hilarious “You’ll be back, wait and see” episodes in Hamilton — stood down, ahem, and we went our separate ways. Not so separate, actually, but independents with very similar approaches to life. To see what the Brits thought of our “rebellion,” here’s a wonderful article. It’s made more wonderful because the letters are housed at the... Read more

By Andy Rowell, posted with permission. Open Letter to Willow Creek Association Board and Tom De Vries July 03, 2018 Dear Tom De Vries and the Willow Creek Association Board, I’m a ministry leadership professor at Bethel Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota and I attended the Global Leadership Summit last year. Bill Hybels was one of my heroes. I am concerned about the latest article in the Daily Herald about the GLS and about the May 17 public statement by the WCA. Benjamin Ady... Read more

From USAToday: Think about the words [Maxine Waters] told her supporters to use: “You’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.” At a time when her biggest issues include immigration, racial injustice, and LGBTQ rights, is that really a sentence she wants to invoke? It’s tough but simple. You can’t play dirty and complain about the other side playing dirty. You can’t show disrespect and claim you’re being disrespected. Waters, on Friday, bemoaned having to cancel two events out of threats to her... Read more

I have long felt that the most challenging passage in Scripture is found at the beginning of Genesis 6. When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty... Read more

Of course, it depends what you mean by violence (see below), but it’s still a good question: Was Jesus violent? Those who contend for a more pacifist view distance Jesus from violence while some today think Jesus participated in violence. A big issue in intellectual studies about violence is defining violence: Violence is physical, emotional, or psychological harm done to a person by an individual(s), institution, or structure that results in serious injury, oppression, or death. Eric Seibert, in his... Read more

What does it mean to confess the Final Judgment in our creeds and catechisms? The most common approach to final judgment is about “Will I get to heaven?” That is, eternal life beyond the judgment is about personal salvation, and for the same common approach that decision is now so that any actual awe about that final judgment, an awe and fear that surely is present in European art, has evaporated. Its song is “When the Roll is Called Upon... Read more

By Jason Micheli As Sarah Condon noted in a recent post at Mockingbird, pastors of late seem consumed with the question “Will my sermon be newsy enough this week?” Often, this concern is couched in the mandate for preachers to be prophetic. Thou Shalt Preach This Issue, Sarah rightly observed, is a law pastors have been laying on each other with increasing fervor since the election of Donald Trump to the White House, adding from our pulpits to the chorus of shoulds and ought... Read more

From Benedicta Ward: [About St Cuthbert]: A Christian saint is not remembered as wise or great or righteous, but as a humble and sinful human being who learned, through who knows what agonies and darknesses, so to walk in faith in Christ through his daily life that at the point of death he revealed to others, if not to himself, that underneath are the everlasting arms. Read more